Putin’s approval rating hits historic high at 89 percent

Russian independent pollster, the Levada Center, says the share of Russians who are happy with Vladimir Putin’s work as president has reached 89 percent, which is his highest-ever approval rating.

The poll was conducted over the period June 19-22, with the
Levada Center releasing its results on Wednesday.

The number of Russians who expressed dissatisfaction with Putin’s
work was 10 percent.

Sixty-four percent think the current policies of the Russian
authorities are correct – also the highest in history.

Sixty-six percent of responders said they approved of Dmitry
Medvedev’s work as prime minister and 33 percent expressed
disappointment with it. At the same time, the government in
general has earned the approval of 62 percent of Russians and the
disapproval of 37 percent.

The Lower House of Parliament was less popular, with 54 percent
of those polled approving the MPs’ actions and 44 percent saying
their efforts weren’t good enough.

When researchers asked the Russian public to name five or six
politicians they trusted most, Putin again ranked first with 64
percent of responders naming him their favorite. Defense Minister
Sergey Shoigu was second with 28 percent and third place was
split between PM Dmitry Medvedev and Foreign Minister Sergey
Lavrov, who each garnered 21 percent.

Opposition party leaders claimed significantly less – only 11
percent of Russians said they trusted the head of the Communist
Party Gennadiy Zyuganov, nine percent gave Liberal Democratic
Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovskiy the nod, and just four percent
said they trusted the head of the Fair Russia party, Sergey
Mironov.

At the same time, 9 percent of responders said they trusted no
politicians at all and 13 percent answered they had no interest
in politics.

Putin’s previous record-high rating was registered in mid-March
this year, when it reached 85 percent. In March, the Levada
Center said their research indicated Putin would win the
presidential elections in the first round if they were held over
the next weekend. According to sociologists, 57 percent of
Russian citizens were ready to cast their votes for Putin. Among
those who said that they knew for sure who they would support,
this share was even higher at 80 percent.

When Russians were asked who they would like to see elected when
the actual ballot is due (in March 2018), 57 percent replied they
would be happy if Putin is reelected. Twenty-five percent said
they would prefer someone else and 19 percent found it difficult
to make a choice.

Putin’s approval ratings have been constantly rising since the
beginning of last year and in December an overwhelming majority
of citizens named their president the “Man of the Year”, when
they chose from serving Russian politicians.